Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

I have had a memorable month of baseball thus far this August, which was kickstarted by my first-ever trip to Cleveland's ballpark. That was succeeded by a midweek trip to Yankee Stadium when the Seattle Mariners were in town playing the Yankees and followed that up with my first, and likely only, Staten Island FerryHawks game of the year less than a week later. I was also lucky to catch the opening game of the Mets-Padres series at Citi Field and then went back to Yankee Stadium for the middle game of the Yankees-Blue Jays series I mentioned in last week's post. The cherry on top of all these activities was another mid-series game, but this time it was in Queens as I had to watch the Brewers defeat the Mets this past Wednesday. I am hoping for at least two more trips to CitiField this season as the Houston Astros are in town this weekend and my San Francisco Giants will be here to take on the Mets the following weekend. The Giants and Mets are both terrible this year, so tha...

With the 2026 MLB regular season slowly winding down, I cannot help but reflect on all the fun games I have been to thus far. While it has worked out that I have already been to eight games at CitiField, my totals at Yankee Stadium will only reach half that amount tomorrow as I plan to see the Toronto Blue Jays during their second and final scheduled series in the Bronx this year. I always enjoy seeing the Jays, and this upcoming game is could get spicy because I am rolling in with a crew comprised of two Toronto fans and one Boston Red Sox fan. I caught the Red Sox last season on one of their trips to New York in 2025, but the only Jays game I was able to get to that year was rained out, so considering all this, tomorrow will be extra special. A fair amount of consideration goes into the selection of the caps I wear to ball games, but as you might imagine, the esoteric logos of former Mets and Yankees affiliates do not exactly inspire their fans in New York to stop me in my tracks to ...

My recent trend of posting caps that are of the vintage, retro and fauxback variety continues as this week's Fresh Fitted Friday  hones in on the latter category. In fact I selected this Erie SeaWolves cap  in recognition of today's date (August 14) being the designated time to celebrate "814 Day" in reference to the area code of the Erie region in Pennsylvania. I urge you to scroll down to check out the photos and captions of the cap I’ve selected, but first, let me share some insights on this lovable cap logo. The fauxback logo was designed as a “What If?” nod to a cap the SeaWolves would have worn from the 1930s to the 1960s, as stated on the team’s site . Vintage-inspired logos usually get my attention, and this week’s cap is no exception. I’ve written about the current SeaWolves logo and its predecessors , but it was only recently that I discovered the team’s brief affiliation with the Pittsburgh Pirates only lasted from 1995 to 1998. This whole time I was mista...

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday post brings us back to celebrating the zany holidays, as August 7 is National Sea Serpent Day, and I just so happen to have a cap design called "Sea Serpents" that I picked up from The Clink Room, which is perfect to celebrate the occasion. If you have been a regular reader of this blog for a good stretch of time, you have likely noticed I rarely go more than a few weeks without a post containing a nautical theme or some sort of water-adjacent theme, but there are occasional  droughts , so to speak. This week, however, the tides have aligned to bring this monster to the surface, so hopefully you enjoy it as much as I do! Every once in a while, a pre-order shows up on The Clink Room  that I just have to have, and when this monster reared its head, I was terrified of any outcome other than picking it up. I am still not sure why The Clink Room does not have a signature sweatband tag at this point, but symmetry be damned, this looks okay! Usual...

I have a shorter post for this week as I had lots going on with friends in town for the recent run of Phish shows at Madison Square Garden and as I write this I am also packing for my first ever trip to Cleveland. The Arizona Diamondbacks are playing a three game set  at Progressive Field and I hope  to catch the first two games of the series. The inspiration for this week's post however has nothing to do with Cleveland or the Diamondbacks but rather National Pinball Day which is celebrated on August 1 as that is the birthday of pinball visionary, Roger Sharpe. The hat I've chosen to celebrate Sharpe is a Kannapolis Cannon Ballers hat because the cap design makes me think of a pinball in flight! I picked this cap up in 2022 so I imagine the sweatband tags should align with other caps from that year. After celebrating the Knicks and MSG with blue and orange last week, I'm back on my ususal program of paying homage to the US with a red, white and blue cap this week. I am look...

This week's  Fresh Fitted Friday post marks the second snapback I've written about this year and while that has been the average amount recently, looking back at years like 2015 and 2017 give a good glimpse into the kind of attention I have given to snaps previously. In retrospect, I could have also waited until tomorrow to share photos of this hat for a  Snapback Saturday post! Being retrospective is actually a driving force in selecting this particular snapback this week and folks who dig  deep into the archives also know that I have mentioned on multiple occasions that Phish is my favorite band and has been the inspiration for quite a few posts. A bit of reverence for the past is the reason Phish turned back the clock to 1992 with the song selection during the first night of its  current Madison Square Garden residency for their 92nd show at the legendary venue. C orrelating the songs chosen for their setlists with songs that were commonly played that year is a ...